tooling quality and some random rant

[Robert Clipsham]

On 13/02/11 13:36, Paulo Pinto wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I am sorry, but I don't belive it.
>
> Many other systems programming languages that atempted to displace C and
> C++, have
> the toolchain built in its languages, after the compilers were bootstrapped,
> as anyone
> with enough compiler knowledge will surely tell you.
>
> And D's linker must first be written in C, to make it easy to rewrite in D?!
>
> A linker is not science fiction, it is just a program that binds object
> files and libraries together
> to produce an executable. Any programming language able to manipulate files
> and binary
> data, can be used to create a linker.
>
> --
> Paulo

I believe the issue is that OPTLINK is written in highly optimised 
hand-written assembly, and as such a direct port to D is impossible. As 
the linker is such a delicate tool (even a minor change can have major 
repucussions), the port needs to be as direct as possible - sure, it 
could be ported directly to D, but it will more than likely break in the 
process. See also 
http://www.drdobbs.com/blog/archives/2009/11/assembler_to_c.html

-- 
Robert
http://octarineparrot.com/